A.N. You might not need to read Junior Year to follow this story—but you should anyway—it's a fun ride! (Kidding—sort of.) This will be a short multi-part story. Rather than including full songs, I'll post playlists on my new youtube channel :) Add this to youtube: /user/novice242?feature=mhum to hear the two songs mentioned in this chapter if you're interested in suggested listening. The two song playlist is called SiC-1.
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or anything familiar. Camps are loosely based on real camps.
...
June
Rachel Berry supposed if she would have been asked a year ago if there she could imagine herself having an enjoyable conversation with Tina, Mike, and Brittany, she would have said something verbose like: "While I have a vivid imagination, I find it hard to envision such a scenario that could be deemed enjoyable. Pleasant perhaps, but enjoyable may be an overstatement of any positive interactions I could expect." But here she was, at the airport waiting to board the flight to New York, having a truly enjoyable conversation with her three fellow glee club members.
Rachel wasn't surprised that she and Tina got along so well. They'd been growing closer over the course of their junior year. But while Mike had always seemed nice enough, and certainly up for dancing in glee, she hadn't had many interactions with him at all. And all of her interactions with Brittany had been negatively influenced by Cheerios, general snobbery, and some jealousy Rachel felt toward Brittany (and Santana) regarding a certain situation with Finn sophomore year.
Rachel supposed that her more positive feelings toward Brittany were influenced by flattery here in the airport.
Brittany returned from her trip to the ladies' room and sat down next to Mike. He put his arm around her and said, "This is the life. I'm surrounded by awesome babes and we're headed for an awesome place. Best of all, I've got my beautiful girl by my side," he smiled and jostled Brittany's shoulders.
Brittany smiled, but then looked confused. "What awesome babes?"
Mike was startled by the question and didn't want to get in trouble with any of the three girls around him over a misunderstanding. "I was talking about Tina and Rachel, Britt. You know, just acknowledging their hotness while saying that you're my number one."
"Oh."
Rachel took a glance to see if Tina looked as uncomfortable as she felt.
She did.
But then Brittany said some surprising things.
"You know, Rachel, I really like how your new side-swept bangs frame your face. And of course it's true that you've always had super hot legs. I guess I'm too used to saying mean things about you because of Santana and Quinn," she shrugged pleasantly.
Then she went on to say something nice about Tina along the lines of exotic beauty and shiny hair. But Rachel wasn't paying too much attention. She was in a state of happy shock over the odd compliment she'd just received.
So yes, flattery worked when it came to Rachel Berry. From that point on, the four students talked animatedly about how excited they were to get away from McKinley to go to camp in New York City. Tina and Rachel would be roommates at acting camp. Of course Brittany and Mike were not allowed to be roommates at dance camp, but Mike vowed it wouldn't stop him from "gettin' wit' his girl".
Tina and Rachel both blushed—TMI, anyone? But Brittany just nodded and smiled as if it were the most natural thing in the world to talk like that in front of anyone.
Maybe it was. Perhaps by dating Noah Puckerman Rachel should become immune to such things. Noah certainly talked openly, as if he didn't have a filter between his brain and his mouth, and he had a thoroughly dirty mind. Rachel blushed more deeply at the thought of some of the things he'd say.
…
When Rachel got her first taste of acting camp on the NYU Polytechnic campus, she thought she'd be too busy to actively miss her boyfriend. But by the first weekend, she was positively pining for him. The camp itself was only two weeks long, and she had the good fortune of having a week off before she started her second camp in New York, the Broadway camp. The best part about having a free week in New York was that her amazing boyfriend would be visiting her during that week. She could not wait!
But she knew she was lucky to have a few familiar faces with her in New York. Unbeknownst to each of the girls until the end of the school year, both Rachel and Tina had applied to the acting camp at NYU. And Mike and Brittany had both applied to the dance camp occurring through the same program. So Rachel had a built-in network of friends with whom to spend her free time. And the network only expanded. Not that there was much free time. Acting camp was very rigorous—just how Rachel liked it. In the first week they learned techniques but also were being prepared to divide into small groups to produce film shorts, including their compatriots in the dancing camp. This allowed the participants to work together in semi-realistic settings for a full film production. This was geared to film rather than stage acting; and Rachel knew her strength and goal was for the stage, so she perhaps didn't concentrate on her work as hard as she could have—she had a long distance relationship to maintain. However, Rachel felt twinges of jealousy now and then when the drama coaches complimented others (like Tina) but made no remarks about her acting. Still, in spite of a few minor bumps, the whole experience was extremely valuable and would certainly further her goal of one day starring on Broadway.
As much as she enjoyed acting camp overall, the highlight of every day was her time talking or texting with Noah. Whenever she had a break in her scheduled, she would send him a text. If he wasn't busy, he'd call her right back. If he was busy, he'd usually still text her for a while. Today Rachel was in a small group for a performance in which unfortunately, she was only a supporting actress. But fortunately she had time before her next scene, and she felt well-prepared. So instead of running lines, she sent a text to Noah.
"Hey, baby," he said when he called her back.
"Hi, sweetie! I love it when you're available when I'm available! It's much more enjoyable to hear your voice, even though I do love your text messages too."
"What else do you love?" he said seductively.
"Noah!" she exclaimed before returning to a loud whisper. " I..I can't talk about that right now. But…I think you know," she finished with what she hoped was a flirty tone.
It definitely worked for Puck. He liked imagining her getting all hot and bothered before having to go on stage. But as that thought entered his head, he then worried that she'd use that tension in her acting… "Rach, you don't have any kissing scenes or anything like that, right?"
Rachel assured him she didn't, and then went on about the injustice of her supporting status while Tina was the lead in her small group. She could tell Noah was getting a bit bored based on his repetitive grunts in response to her story, so she switched gears and instead began to talk about how much she missed him and how she couldn't wait for him to visit. As Rachel was chatting away, she was rudely interrupted.
"Get a balcony," Mike said as he gave Rachel a playful nudge.
"What?"
"C'mon…nothing? Romeo and Juliet? We're at a performing arts camp for fuck's sake!"
"Oh, a balcony!" she exclaimed with a giggle. "That's very clever, Mike."
"Uh, yeah. I try," he shrugged. "Thanks, Rach."
"Who the fuck is that?" Puck barked into the phone suspiciously.
It was loud enough for Mike to hear. "Tell Puck to chill and that I said Hi."
"Noah, it was only Mike. He says 'hi'. He overheard me, and made a rather amusing comment. He said, 'get a balcony'. Like Romeo and Juliet. Clever, right?"
"Yeah, pretty fuckin' clever," he grumbled.
"Really, Noah, you seem to be reacting as if something is wrong when there is nothing at all amiss. Mike has been nothing but a gentleman who is clearly infatuated with Brittany."
"I don't know exactly what you just said, but I'll say this: there's a first time for everything. Chang could be a sneaky bastard trying to set up a little somethin' on the side with you. Better watch yourself, B."
"Noah Elijah Puckerman! You better watch yourself! That's no way to talk to me or about your friend!"
Puck froze at her words. But not because he felt bad for what he'd said. "Dude, how did you know my middle name? I sure as hell never told you." Before he heard her answer, an image of Rachel talking to his mother entered his mind. Shit. "Did you hear it from my mom?"
"Of course I did, how else?" she answered simply.
"Hold up. You're telling me that you have secret conversations with my mom about me?" All Puck heard was hysterical giggling and sounds that indicated Rachel was trying to keep herself from laughing too loud. "It's not fuckin' funny."
She got a hold of herself and spoke into the phone, "Honestly, Noah, would it be that bad if I had talked to your mother without you present?"
"Uh…yeah, it would be."
"You can be so silly," she grinned into the phone. "But no, I did not have a clandestine meeting with your mother to learn your middle name and other unmentionable details about you. Yesterday when you and I were on the phone, she yelled at you about something, and she included your middle name. I suppose that's why it came out today when I was admonishing you."
"Let's try to avoid you doing anything to remind me of your similarities to my mom, k?" Because that shit's unnerving. It was something that was an issue now that he was dating Rachel but had never been an issue when he was with Quinn. Not that he could tell Rachel that. Ever.
"I will try not to bring up any similarities we may have, real or imaginary," she said solemnly. Then she smiled into the phone. "I scared you, didn't I?"
"Fuck yeah, you did!"
…
By the middle of the week, even students she hadn't met personally knew that she had a boyfriend because she was always getting text messages. Rachel smiled at every text. He always sent a text before and after football practice. She tried to answer every text too, even if it wasn't right away; and even when the contents of the message made her blush. They almost always talked to say goodnight before Rachel went to sleep. But since she was rooming with Tina, she couldn't very well say certain things out loud and make her friend very uncomfortable. She was determined to make this long distance summer arrangement work. And if that meant sexting with her dream-inspiring boyfriend every night, then that's what she was going to do.
Because Noah Puckerman was gorgeous, inside and out. And they fit together like he was made for her.
…
Besides sexting and generally keeping in touch with his girl, Puck had a few things to keep him busy while Rachel was away. He had football camp, and he had band practice too—and Josh was flipping out as expected while they prepared for their "big New York debut". Josh was like that—kind of a perfectionist when it came to performing—like Rachel. And Puck could understand why he wanted the shows to go well. Josh and the guys would be graduating from college next year and probably moving to New York to try to make it big. Of course, they were all going to get jobs or apply to school for Master's degrees or whatever, but their focus would be the band.
Between Rachel going to New York for college and the band, Puck was definitely (maybe) going to New York too. He just had to figure out the financial shit and actually get accepted somewhere.
Easier said than done.
But for now he was just concentrating on band practice so Josh didn't yell at him for not paying attention. They were mostly doing sets of songs they'd been playing for the past few months, but Josh insisted on adding some new ones.
As they finished playing some Pete Yorn tunes, Puck couldn't help but interrupt. "Dude, I get it that you're all emo over Quinn, but you're the one who pulled that stunt, so get over it and play some better shit. I'm thinking these are not the best choices for getting the crowd to their feet in New York."
"Fuck off, Puckerman. This has nothing to do with Quinn," Josh lied. "You don't know what you're talking about. We're gonna be playing for people my age and older. You're too young to get it."
"I think everyone here knows what I'm talking about and the guys agree with me on this one," Puck said smugly.
"I don't know what you're talking about with the Quinn crap," Trey piped up from behind the drum kit. "But I don't care. I just wanna kick ass. And that means playing better songs, dude."
Josh knew they were both right, but he was too proud to admit it directly. He did, however, have an alternative song in mind. "How about this one from Pete Yorn instead? He's popular for the age range we're playing to, especially the New York crowds. This one is a bit…faster tempo."
So instead of Crystal Village, they went with Life on a Chain which the guys agreed was marginally less emo than the first. It was still a little iffy, but Josh persuaded them that the sound was unique and would be well-received in NYC.
Puck actually liked some of the chorus to Life on a Chain, and during the song he thought about Rachel. He wanted her to hear them play at least once in New York, and he knew her well enough to know she'd be too worried about getting in trouble with whoever makes the rules at her camp to go to the bar shows. So as they were finishing up their band practice, he made a request.
"Hey, Josh, can you set up some shows in all-ages venues, like coffee shops and stuff? Then we'd be able to play during the days too instead of just at nights—more exposure while we're there. And you know…Rach might be able to see one of our shows…"
"Good idea, Puckerman," Josh said right away. "…Then we might even get Rachel to perform some of the songs she assisted us with previously… It couldn't hurt. And I gotta admit, your girl can sing."
Puck nodded appreciatively.
"Percussion Gun!" Trey shouted over Puck's thank-you.
"Yes, Trey, we can ask her if she'll play with us for your favorite drum song," Josh said patronizingly.
Trey didn't seem to notice. He just did a fist pump and said "sweet!"
"Alright, then let's make this happen," Josh announced. "Eddie and I can call venues to try to get us some day gigs. Puckerman, you talk to your girl to make sure she's in. Trey…you…figure out how we're gonna transport all the equipment we need for your precious percussion-heavy song."
Josh wasn't sure if Trey could handle the job, but they still had a little while to work everything out for the trip to New York.
…
The two weeks he spent without Rachel Berry felt like the longest in his life since they'd been together. Sure they had that fight last winter, but since then they had been together pretty much all the time. Even when he had practice for the band he joined while they were fighting, Rachel was almost always there, hanging out doing homework while they played. And of course, because it's Rachel Berry, she had snagged a couple of performances with the band. Puck smirked at the memories. That was his girl-always a performer. But she was fucking talented, so it was almost like community service or some shit that she shared that with the world. (Or the small crowds at the OSU Lima Tavern. Yeah, ok, New York was definitely the place for Rachel.)
But today was the last day he had to endure of football camp before seeing her. He and the guys in The Relentless would be driving up to NYC that weekend and he'd miss a week of the camp, with permission for once, and that was cool since he'd be back in time for the official tryouts—though his spot on the team was a given.
"Well, man, I guess I'll see ya in about a week," Puck told Finn as they finished up football for the day. They headed toward Quinn and the other Cheerios who were finishing their practice too.
"Yeah, have fun in New York, Puck. Tell Rachel we said hi and stuff," Finn replied. Then he looked at his blond girlfriend who, despite cheering all day in the summer heat, looked radiant. "Did you want to give Puck a message to tell Rachel when he sees her?"
Quinn looked up at him, confused. She just finished doing a back-breaking cheer routine, and she felt a little out of it. "What?"
"I'm going to New York with the guys in the band, and I'm gonna see Rachel during her week off between her two camps," Puck explained.
"So you're really still friends with that jerk after what he did to me?" Quinn latched on to Puck's brief mention of 'the guys in the band' and thought about the terrible things Josh had said to her.
Puck knew immediately who 'that jerk' was. "Shit, Quinn. His brother is letting us play in his bar in Brooklyn. That's where Rachel is. Of course I'm going. You're seriously gonna be pissed at me for hanging out with Josh? Just because he said some fucked up stuff to get you to break up with him? I mean, I'm sorry he was an ass, but come on!"
"Wait, what did you say?" Quinn asked harshly.
"I said I'm sorry he was an ass." Puck shook his head at Quinn. One week at Cheerios camp and the bitch was back.
"Not that, before that," she said, sounding annoyed.
"I think you heard me," Puck said in a low voice, glancing at Finn. "I'm gonna hit the showers.
I'll just tell Rach that you both said 'hi' when I see her." Puck trotted off to the locker room to text his girl.
Finn wasn't stupid. Well, not when it came to emotions and communication and stuff. He already knew about how Quinn had broken things off with Josh Jordan, the 21-year-old lead singer of the band Puck joined on a whim that winter.
"Are you ok, Quinn?" Finn asked with concern.
"Oh, yes, thanks, Finn. I just worked really hard today. I'm pretty sure Coach Sylvester is going to name me co-captain with Santana by the end of the camp, but I have to earn it, you know?"
"So, next year will be kind of like getting back to old times?" Finn asked thoughtfully.
"I guess in some ways, yes," Quinn said. "Old times," she echoed.
Neither Quinn nor Finn were sure if they were happy about this realization.
…
After Finn dropped her off at home, Quinn tried to call Puck to get him to elaborate on what he said about Josh. She couldn't reach him. She tried messaging and email, but he didn't reply. After an hour of frustrated waiting, Quinn finally decided to use the number she probably should have deleted from her phone. She had changed the entry to JJ (Josh's initials) so just in case anyone (Finn) checked her phone, it wouldn't be obvious whose number it was.
It's not that she still had feelings for Josh. In fact, things were going really well with Finn and she was 99% sure they were falling in love again. But every now and then she'd here a song on the radio—either the romantic one or the break-up ones that Josh played—and she'd feel a stabbing pain in her heart. She wanted that to go away. She had to know if there was more to the story that she didn't know (but somehow Puck did).
So she called Josh.
He didn't answer—the first time she called at least.
She had no way of knowing that when Josh saw Quinn's number appear on his cell, he froze. Then he decided he needed to man up and get this shit over with. So when she called the second time, he answered.
"Sup?"
"Josh, this is Quinn," she started, pleased that the nerves she felt did not show in her voice. She had lots of practice with this skill.
"What can I do you for?" he replied, hoping to piss her off.
It worked.
She let out an exasperated sigh. "I am calling to get an honest answer from you—I hope you're capable of that."
"We'll see," he said casually. "Ask away."
"Puck mentioned something in passing today—that you said things to make me break up with you. Did you do that? On purpose? And if so, why? And why does Puck know?"
"That's rapid fire questioning, babe. Let's take this one at a time."
"You're stalling," she said, annoyed.
Damn right he was. "So what if I am? And so what if I did say those things so that you would break up with me? It worked. It's over."
"But why would you do that? I don't understand."
She sounded so sad and lost, he was starting to feel…whatever…for her again. Shit. He decided to lay it out for her as best he could without saying what he really wanted (that they should forget he did that and get back together). "Look, Quinn, I'm sorry I was such an ass. At the time, I thought it was the only way that you'd actually end things with me—and I didn't have the balls to do it. But I knew it was for the best. And I still think it was probably the only way we would have broken up, so while I'm sorry I hurt you so badly, I'm not sorry I did it."
"That still doesn't explain why you thought it was best that we break up. I just…I just need to know."
This time it was Josh's turn to sigh. "Fine. You deserve the answer. I saw you…with Finn…before Prom. You know how you were hinting that you wanted to go with me? Well, I fucking put on a suit and went to meet you. When you weren't home, I headed out to the civic center and saw you in the parking lot. You looked so happy, Quinn, so beautiful…"
Quinn felt her icy front melting a bit. He sounded so wounded. But she didn't interrupt.
Josh continued after clearing his throat. "Anyway, I just couldn't do it, Quinn. I have to focus on my future, you know, with the band and shit. I can't be competing for a place in your life. There's never gonna be room for me in your heart—not the way I wanted—if you still have feelings for your first love. And it was obvious that you did—that you do. We hadn't been dating that long—6 months—so I figured it would be easier to break it off now before we could get too hurt by each other. So I took myself out of the equation—by pissing you off royally." He chuckled a little.
Quinn couldn't help but release a light laugh too. "Yes, that worked like a charm." She felt the tension easing out of her body.
"I knew it would," he said. He had a bizarre feeling that they were talking like friends. It was weird, but kinda nice.
"Josh, I appreciate your honesty—even though it was way delayed and only after I forced you to do it."
"You didn't force me—I can't be forced into shit. I could have kept that secret with me—taken it to the grave," he said smugly.
"Oh really? Then how did Puck know about it? Is he your new bff?" she laughed.
"Fuck no. I mean, Puckerman's alright and all. But no, I didn't confide in him or anything girly like that. He must have just figured it out. He's smarter than he looks, I guess."
"You might be right," Quinn smiled into the phone. Then she realized a bit about what Josh had said—or at least what she thought he meant—that it was hard for him to be in competition for her. "Josh, I don't want to make things hard for you, so I won't ask you to do the whole open relationship thing again. But if you want to be friends, I'm here."
Josh was afraid of this. No, he couldn't fucking be friends. And that's what he wanted to tell her. He wanted to tell her it would suck ass to see her if he couldn't be with her. Instead, he heard himself say, "Sure, that's cool, Quinn."
"Oh, great! I'm so glad I called you, I feel so much better!"
That makes one of us, Josh thought. But he said, "Yeah, well, I gotta run, Quinn. Talk to you later, ok?"
"Ok!" she said brightly. "Bye!"
"Bye." Then to the dead air he said, "I had my reasons, Quinn. I wanted to leave you alone, for both our sakes." Why'd she have to call? Well, maybe he was glad she called instead of showing up at his place or something. If he'd seen her face, those green eyes, heard her voice…he probably would have kissed her.
…
Quinn replayed the conversations she had that day and realized there was one more thing she wanted to try to accomplish. She called Puck again and left a new message. "Before you leave for New York, don't you think it would be nice to visit Dizzy? Just in case you get murdered by a mugger or something? Not that I think you will…but if you have time, call me back and let me know. I'm going to call Melanie Harris to see if we can stop by this weekend."
As she was getting off the phone with Dizzy's adopted mom, she got a call from Puck. She smiled. And she graciously accepted his offer to come with her to visit their daughter.
She was perfectly capable of visiting her daughter herself, but she felt an urge to see her now and she felt an urge for Puck to see her too. Like she said in her message, she assumed Puck would be fine in New York. But just in case something happened, it seemed like a good idea to see their daughter together. Quinn wouldn't call herself a mother (anymore) but ever since having Diana Isabel, she felt more emotional about certain things, and she felt as if she had a better understanding of how fragile and precious life can be.
…
At NYU, Rachel Berry was not the star of her small group production, while Tina Cohen-Chang was getting lots of praise. What was the world coming to? She was sure Mike and Brittany were being hailed as exceptional dancers too. Rachel had to constantly remind herself that she didn't always have to be the best at everything. It was too bad she wasn't the best at this, though. Maybe she should have given it more effort instead of devoting much of her time to contacting Noah.
There was no singing for this acting camp, and she was often told that she exaggerated her expressions while she was acting—in a way that was good for the stage, but was over-the-top for film purposes. She had to hold her tongue to prevent herself from reminding her instructors (too often) that her goal was the stage (thank you very much). But this was the final performance, so she didn't really need to worry about it anymore. She was counting down the minutes to when she'd see Noah. And she was looking forward to Broadway camp. Surely her skills would be better appreciated there.
…
Quinn and Puck drove out to Mitch and Melanie Harris' house to spend some time with Dizzy. She was more beautiful than ever.
"She used to look even more like you, Noah," Melanie told them. "But she's growing more and more like you, Quinn, every day. It's amazing. And she's just a joy."
Noah looked at his adorable daughter. "You're right. She still has my nose, and her hair is darker than Quinn's, but everything else is her mom," he said in awe. "She's got your big green eyes, Q."
"I would say the color is a mix of ours. But I think you're right about the shape." Quinn felt a surge of happiness. Maybe it was biology and the idea that she'd successfully passed along her genes that was to blame for her sense of joy, but she felt comforted by the thought that she and Puck had done something good.
"Come here, Diana. Say hi to Miss Quinn and Mr. Noah," Mitch Harris said as he pointed to the guests.
Puck flinched a bit at being called Mr. Noah by his daughter. The little girl toddled happily toward them. She babbled something that her adopted parents obviously thought was close enough to the names Noah and Quinn.
"She's a really good talker once you get her going," Melanie assured them. "She's very advanced."
Puck and Quinn found out for themselves, as Dizzy started talking away once they all started playing with her in the Harris' living room.
Melanie interrupted once to tell them that their daughter wasn't familiar with the nickname 'Dizzy'.
Quinn gave a pained smile. "Of course. That makes sense that you wouldn't call her that like we did. I still appreciate that you kept her name. We'll try not to use that nickname while we're here, won't we, Mr. Noah?"
Puck raised his eyebrow at Quinn when he heard her call him Mister. "Yeah, sure. Miss Quinn."
When they left their daughter after their play date, they both felt a mixture of pride and sadness. They were so proud of how lovely Dizzy was. Quinn couldn't identify the source of her sadness, but it seemed that it was partly, stupidly, because her daughter would never be called Dizzy again.
Puck didn't know exactly what was making him feel sad, but when he thought about his future—how it seemed to be mapped out for New York after graduation—he wondered if he could live that far away from his daughter.
He supposed he'd figure that out later. He only visited Dizzy a few times a year. He could still do that if he went to college in New York with Rachel and played with the band there. For now, all he was talking about was going there for a week. And he seriously couldn't fucking wait. There was just a small part of him that wasn't so sure about the future.
…
Puck didn't think about it too long. The guys were at his house to pick him up for the trip shortly after he got back from dropping Quinn off at her mom's house. He had just enough time to double-check his packing job and say bye to his mom and the squirt before they arrived. Trey figured out that between his van and one other vehicle, they could make it to New York. Since there were four of them, they could split into pairs for driving. Puck had been hoping to fly to get there a hell of a lot quicker and not waste time, but it was true that they saved money driving and would need the van there anyway to haul their shit for gigs. It was about an 11 hour drive, so he'd basically waste a day coming and a day going. He wondered if he could get away with flying home to give himself some extra time…
He packed his stuff into Josh's car, since Eddie had already claimed shotgun in Trey's van. Puck volunteered to drive the entire way from Ohio to New York, but Josh figured out what he was up to and said it wouldn't be fair to make someone else drive the whole way back. Then he said that he wasn't willing to drive the whole way, but if Eddie or Trey would do it, then Puck could do whatever the fuck he wanted.
He was obviously in a pissy mood, but Eddie was the man and said he'd drive on the way back. So Josh headed over to Trey's van and made Eddie and Puck swear that his Buick would make it in one piece.
Puck kinda wanted to smack the douchey-ness out of Josh—and it had been a while since he'd felt that way. But he decided to give the guy a break since he was obviously not getting over Quinn fast enough. It helped that Puck didn't have to suffer in the same car as Josh now—so he didn't have to think about his whiny ass.
He and Eddie had a pretty good drive—with Puck driving and Eddie navigating. They talked a bit, which was kinda cool since Puck had always thought Eddie was pretty chill but hadn't talked to him much. They sang along to the radio and dumb shit like that to help stay awake.
…
When they finally reached the New York state line, Puck reminded Eddie that he was supposed to meet Rachel at the airport. Of course, to do this he had to wake his sleeping ass up.
"Wait, why are you meeting her at the airport? She's been there for a while already right?" Eddie asked drowsily.
"Yeah, she's saying goodbye to some of our friends who were at the same camp. She originally figured I'd be flying in, so it made sense at the time that we'd meet there. Now it's just easier that you drop me off there, and Rachel and I can get a cab together to her hotel."
Eddie nodded and promptly fell back asleep while Puck called Josh to make sure he remembered the plan so that Eddie could follow him to Josh's brother's place. Once at the airport, Puck dug out his duffle bag and gave Eddie the keys to Josh's car to drive the rest of the way. "I'll call you guys later to coordinate for our first gig. But don't call me. I plan to be busy." He raised his eyebrows suggestively.
That got a chuckle from Eddie, who shook his head. "Wouldn't dream of interrupting, man. See ya later."
Puck headed into the airport and called Rachel to find out where to meet her.
"You're just in time!" she said happily. "They're just about to go through security! If you hurry, you'll get to say hello and goodbye!"
"Cool. See ya in a sec," he said before double-timing it to the start of the security line. He waved to the group when he spotted them. "Hi guys, hope you had a nice time at camp and a good flight home." He was pleased by his awesomely good behavior.
So was Rachel. And Mike, who grinned widely.
"Thanks, man," Mike said. "It was a good time, wasn't it, Rach?" He jostled her shoulder for good measure. Mike thought it would be fun to get a rise out of Puck.
It totally was.
Puck narrowed his eyes as he watched the exchange.
"Have a good visit, Puck," Tina said, trying to break the obvious tension.
"Yeah, have fun this week," Brittany said. "See ya when you get back."
"Uh, thanks Tina, Brittany. I guess you guys have to get going, huh?" he said—subtlety wasn't his strong suit.
"Yes, you really should hop into the security line," Rachel said. "I'm so glad we were able to have this great experience together."
Then there was more cutesy talk that Puck ignored. But he started paying attention when Rachel kissed Tina on the cheek to say goodbye. Nice! Then Brittany. Ni-ice! Then Mike Chang. Not cool. Puck must have given a look that revealed his thoughts because Chang rolled his eyes at him like it was no big deal. And it really wasn't. It's just that Puck's first reaction was to want to kick Chang's ass. Whatever. It was natural.
As the gang headed back to Ohio, Rachel grabbed Puck's hand and beamed up at him. "Are you ready for our epic adventure in New York together?" she enthused.
"Totally," he smirked. Then he dropped his duffle to lift Rachel up in his arms and swing her around for the dizzying hello-kiss she deserved.
He grinned at the dazed look on her face when he set her down. "Let's get out of here, babe. I'm beyond ready to get you alone in that hotel room."
She gasped a moment and looked around—as if afraid someone would overhear and be offended. But then she grinned slyly at him in return with a sexy, "Me too."
Well, shit. That did wonders for his already healthy mojo. He pulled her next to him, wrapped one arm around her waist, and hauled her tiny ass alongside him as he raced through the terminal to get outside to hail a cab. They had important business to attend to asap.
Rachel squealed as she tried to keep up. As soon as they gave the driver directions, she sighed happily, "Noah, I'm so glad you're here."
"Me too, Rach. You have no idea."
"I think I have an idea," she said—again with that sexy voice. Then she leaned over and started kissing him—in the cab!
Hell yeah!
"I'll show you how glad, baby," he told her smoothly.
"I'm counting on it," she smiled.
Damn. He couldn't wait to get his hot and horny girlfriend back to their hotel. It was gonna be a long night. Guaranteed.
"Oh, you are so in for it," he growled in her ear.
She bit her lip and looked delighted at the prospect.
Fuck. They really needed to get back to the hotel already.
…
A.N. Hope you liked the introductory chapter which gives a brief refresher on what happened in Junior Year and sets up the story in New York. Reviews help inspire me to write! I already know some of what we'll see, but feel free to make your suggestions!
Disclaimer: Balcony line inspired by the show Angel.